Warning. The following post has a strong religious content. If you do not appreciate strong leadership and vision with a religious twist, please stop reading now.
I have said before that there are several sources of leadership and “how to” do things that influence me personally. I posted an article titled “Without a Vision, People Perish”. As I read through that and really focused on what I had been inspired to write, it came to me that there is such a strong parallel between our business and our church. A church can be a great organization that provides vision, leadership and is great, not simply good.
My family and I attend Royalwood Church in Houston Texas where I am constantly inspired by the leadership of Pastor Ron Macey. @RevRonMac is a visionary that exemplifies what leadership is and what it should be. What I am writing about parallels the article above in so many ways and whether you take from this a spiritual revelation or a business revelation, I hope that it influences you. Let make this disclosure, I have not consulted with Pastor Macey and the opinions and examples used are my own, not his.
As I attend church, I am fully engaged with the vision of the church and the WHY. @RevRonMac addresses both of these points. In an age where the church role is changing and the landscape of the church member is changing, it takes a strong leader to change tradition, conversely, in a business environment that changes daily, we can't do things as we have always done them. We must do more, we must be better! Risk taking. One of the great elements of a leader. Here are two lessons I’ve recently learned:
Lesson One – Take the Risk, Align with the WHY
@RevRonMac has the vision of the church focused on those outside the church. That is our WHY. To that end, we have found ourselves out of space and no longer able to contain the entire membership in one service. Now the risk taking……..the elimination of the Sunday Night service. Let me put that in perspective. I would say that is the equivalent of the Catholic Church eliminating Mass. Seriously. I am a lifetime Pentecostal. Sunday Night services are “THE NIGHT”. The service of all services, the Holy Grail of services. Talk about sacred cows, THIS is a sacred cow.
In an example for leaders of any organization to follow, @RevRonMac focused on the why, and slaughtered the sacred cow. Now, let’s be clear, we aren’t going to have less church, we are going to have two services on Sunday morning to accommodate the WHY. Lesson learned, when you focus on the WHY, the rest of the decisions become clearer (not easier!). Taking the most traditional element of the organization and changing it to accommodate a changing client (the unchurched) and changing to align the organization with the WHY, that is a lesson to appreciate.
Lesson Two – Share the VisionIt has been an amazing revealing of the 2016 Vision. As I observed the Media Team, the staff and all of the components come together for the 2016 Vision it became clear that this was Vision Leadership. There is no question that those in attendance for this service understood what the vision for Royalwood was in 2016. I watched as Pastor Macey stood before the church and shared the vision. Not apologizing for change or being shy about where we are going, but with clear words and expressions, defined exactly where we are going. As a leader I looked at that and knew at that moment I had to stand in front of our organization and share my heart and the vision for our firm. The simply lesson to learn here is simply this, stand before your team, your organization, whatever you are leading, and clearly share where you are going from your heart. Eloquence isn’t necessary. Passion and clarity are.
Unparalleled
As I sit and just think about great organizations, I just wonder, did the early team at Google or Apple or Facebook realize that they were a part of greatness? Did they truly understand that they were a part of something that would revolutionize some area of our lives? Even at Royalwood, I look and see that in a religious setting, we are living in a vision. We are living in greatness. The term that was coined for the church this year was “Unparalleled”. This is a moment of greatness and one that you know, without a doubt, that you are a part of an organization that is changing lives. But does everyone see it? Help your team see clearly where you are!
I will ask the same questions I asked in my previous post:
Does your leadership (Pastor) take risks or is it status quo? Just trodding along and never challenging “same as last year” mentality? If you are not experiencing change in your organization, you are fading.
Does you leadership stand up and communicate to you EXACTLY what the vision and direction of your company (Church) is? Do you know where the company (church) wants to be in 5 years?
Does your leadership (Pastor) tell you why your organization exists? Who does it exist for?
I see a church living in the moment. One that has not only unparalleled spiritual goals and dreams, but great leadership lessons to be learned for those that are paying attention.
President or Pastor, saint or staff, next time you are at church, you may just get your next lesson in leadership
Wesley Middleton author of Violent Leadership: Be a Force for Change. Disrupt. Innovate. Energize. (ForbesBooks), co-founder and managing partner of Middleton Raines + Zapata LLP (MRZ), a tax and accounting services firm, and is also an executive team member for MRZ Financial and SKY Valuation. With over 25 years of tax compliance and consulting experience, he has demonstrated a knack for helping business owners transform their companies into growth and strategy-oriented organizations that excel in operations, marketing, technology, customer service, and workforce engagement, as well as tax and accounting services. Middleton is a certified public accountant and member of the AICPA, Texas Society of CPAs, and the Association of Accounting Marketing.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesleymiddletoncpa/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wesleymcpa
Website: http://www.wesleymiddleton.com
MRZ LLP: http://www.mrzllp.com
I have said before that there are several sources of leadership and “how to” do things that influence me personally. I posted an article titled “Without a Vision, People Perish”. As I read through that and really focused on what I had been inspired to write, it came to me that there is such a strong parallel between our business and our church. A church can be a great organization that provides vision, leadership and is great, not simply good.
My family and I attend Royalwood Church in Houston Texas where I am constantly inspired by the leadership of Pastor Ron Macey. @RevRonMac is a visionary that exemplifies what leadership is and what it should be. What I am writing about parallels the article above in so many ways and whether you take from this a spiritual revelation or a business revelation, I hope that it influences you. Let make this disclosure, I have not consulted with Pastor Macey and the opinions and examples used are my own, not his.
As I attend church, I am fully engaged with the vision of the church and the WHY. @RevRonMac addresses both of these points. In an age where the church role is changing and the landscape of the church member is changing, it takes a strong leader to change tradition, conversely, in a business environment that changes daily, we can't do things as we have always done them. We must do more, we must be better! Risk taking. One of the great elements of a leader. Here are two lessons I’ve recently learned:
Lesson One – Take the Risk, Align with the WHY
@RevRonMac has the vision of the church focused on those outside the church. That is our WHY. To that end, we have found ourselves out of space and no longer able to contain the entire membership in one service. Now the risk taking……..the elimination of the Sunday Night service. Let me put that in perspective. I would say that is the equivalent of the Catholic Church eliminating Mass. Seriously. I am a lifetime Pentecostal. Sunday Night services are “THE NIGHT”. The service of all services, the Holy Grail of services. Talk about sacred cows, THIS is a sacred cow.
In an example for leaders of any organization to follow, @RevRonMac focused on the why, and slaughtered the sacred cow. Now, let’s be clear, we aren’t going to have less church, we are going to have two services on Sunday morning to accommodate the WHY. Lesson learned, when you focus on the WHY, the rest of the decisions become clearer (not easier!). Taking the most traditional element of the organization and changing it to accommodate a changing client (the unchurched) and changing to align the organization with the WHY, that is a lesson to appreciate.
Lesson Two – Share the VisionIt has been an amazing revealing of the 2016 Vision. As I observed the Media Team, the staff and all of the components come together for the 2016 Vision it became clear that this was Vision Leadership. There is no question that those in attendance for this service understood what the vision for Royalwood was in 2016. I watched as Pastor Macey stood before the church and shared the vision. Not apologizing for change or being shy about where we are going, but with clear words and expressions, defined exactly where we are going. As a leader I looked at that and knew at that moment I had to stand in front of our organization and share my heart and the vision for our firm. The simply lesson to learn here is simply this, stand before your team, your organization, whatever you are leading, and clearly share where you are going from your heart. Eloquence isn’t necessary. Passion and clarity are.
Unparalleled
As I sit and just think about great organizations, I just wonder, did the early team at Google or Apple or Facebook realize that they were a part of greatness? Did they truly understand that they were a part of something that would revolutionize some area of our lives? Even at Royalwood, I look and see that in a religious setting, we are living in a vision. We are living in greatness. The term that was coined for the church this year was “Unparalleled”. This is a moment of greatness and one that you know, without a doubt, that you are a part of an organization that is changing lives. But does everyone see it? Help your team see clearly where you are!
I will ask the same questions I asked in my previous post:
Does your leadership (Pastor) take risks or is it status quo? Just trodding along and never challenging “same as last year” mentality? If you are not experiencing change in your organization, you are fading.
Does you leadership stand up and communicate to you EXACTLY what the vision and direction of your company (Church) is? Do you know where the company (church) wants to be in 5 years?
Does your leadership (Pastor) tell you why your organization exists? Who does it exist for?
I see a church living in the moment. One that has not only unparalleled spiritual goals and dreams, but great leadership lessons to be learned for those that are paying attention.
President or Pastor, saint or staff, next time you are at church, you may just get your next lesson in leadership
Wesley Middleton author of Violent Leadership: Be a Force for Change. Disrupt. Innovate. Energize. (ForbesBooks), co-founder and managing partner of Middleton Raines + Zapata LLP (MRZ), a tax and accounting services firm, and is also an executive team member for MRZ Financial and SKY Valuation. With over 25 years of tax compliance and consulting experience, he has demonstrated a knack for helping business owners transform their companies into growth and strategy-oriented organizations that excel in operations, marketing, technology, customer service, and workforce engagement, as well as tax and accounting services. Middleton is a certified public accountant and member of the AICPA, Texas Society of CPAs, and the Association of Accounting Marketing.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wesleymiddletoncpa/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wesleymcpa
Website: http://www.wesleymiddleton.com
MRZ LLP: http://www.mrzllp.com
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